The present invention relates to honing tools and more especially to apparatus and techniques for supporting abrasive elements within honing tool bodies.
Honing is a process where through numerous reciprocating and rotating passes a relatively small amount of material is removed from a surface by means of abrasive elements. The abrading action occurs over a wide surface area rather than on a line of contact as in a grinding operation. The honing tool itself comprises a holding device or body containing several generally oblong abrasive elements arranged in a circular pattern in which abrasive elements are forced against a workpiece by a wedging action, for example, of expander plates forcing those elements outwardly. Such reciprocable and rotatable honing tools carrying these circumferentially spaced abrasive elements or honing stones have been utilized for many years to hone cylindrical bores in workpieces such as for example the cylindrical bores for internal combustion engines. Heretofore, various means have been utilized for mounting and retaining abrasive elements in such honing tools and for the purpose of insulating the honing tool body from wear generated by pressure and motion of the abrasive element in the honing tool slot. The abrasive elements have been mounted in plastic, aluminum, diecastings and even paper in attempts to overcome the retention problem and minimize wear in the tool body. Exemplary of the prior art attempts is my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,810,333. A further highly undesirable feature of the current honing art is the high noise level generated by honing tools. These innovations utilizing plastic, aluminum and paper, due to labor costs have a high unit cost factor. Therefore, one object of invention is to allow the use of abrasive made to size at a lessor cost figure.